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Jet Airways begins UDAN flights, offers fares starting Rs 967

Jet Airways that announced the commencement of its UDAN flights from June 14 yesterday, is now offering budget fares starting as low as Rs 967. The airlines announced yesterday that the first of its UDAN flights, the government's regional connectivity scheme, would be operated between Lucknow-Allahabad-Patna.

Jet Airways had bagged four routes in the second round of bidding in January where a total of 325 routes were awarded to various operators. Besides, Lucknow-Allahabad-Patna, Jet Airways will operate its UDAN flights on New Delhi-Nashik, Nagpur-Allahabad-Indore and Lucknow-Bareilly-Delhi routes.

The fares for the Lucknow-Allahabad-Patna flight under the Udan scheme will be Rs 967, while the flights on the Patna-Allahabad-Patna route will cost Rs 1,216, Jet Airways said in a release today.

Similarly, the ticket price for a trip on the Nagpur-Allahabad-Nagpur route has been pegged at Rs 1,690, while the Indore-Allahabad-Indore flight will cost Rs 1,914, the release added. Fare for a Delhi-Nashik-Delhi flight will be Rs 2,665, the release mentioned.

At least half of the seats in the UDAN flights are offered at subsidised rates. The participating carriers get a certain amount of viability gap funding (VGF) that is shared between the Centre and the particular state. To fund the scheme, the civil aviation ministry is collecting a levy of Rs 5,000 per departure from airlines operating in major routes, including Mumbai and Delhi.

The government had in March 2017 awarded 128 regional routes to five airlines for launching flights under the Udan (Ude Desh Ka Aam Naagrik) scheme, which aims at boosting air connectivity to the hinterland.

Under the scheme, the fares have been kept at Rs 2,500 for a one-hour journey.